Sarah Gent joined the TCR Hub team in September 2020 to drive forward Family Activities as part of the National Lottery funded project. A step into creative programming and delivery for Sarah, this role gives her the chance to enjoy working with local families to enable more people to access the fantastic facilities at the Hub whilst ensuring that there are things happening that people want to do! Sarah has fifteen years of Marketing and Communications expertise, working for The Witham community arts centre in Barnard Castle from 2015 to 2020 as the Programming and Marketing Manager. She is a Linocut artist as well as trained English and Drama teacher so is able to facilitate workshops and devise exciting activities that will be of interest to children, young people and adults alike. Sarah works thirty hours a week, sharing the role.

Sandie Truten is the Hub’s Finance Assistant. She works part-time and is usually at the Hub or working from home on a Monday. Sandie has been been part of the Hub team for around two and a half years. Sandie processes and prepares financial requirements for the purpose of facilitating purchases, arranging invoices and responding to queries. Sandie moved to Teesdale from her native Glasgow around ten years ago and prior to moving worked as an Accounts Assistant for Harper Collins.  She combines her part time role at the Hub with another part time Accounts Assistant role for the local newspaper, the Teesdale Mercury. As finance roles can be quite solitary, Sandie enjoys being part of the bigger team and loves that there is always a buzz about the Hub and the diversity that it can bring to her role – often no two weeks are the same! 

Alison first became involved with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award at the hub when her eldest two children were working towards their awards. At first, she helped with the admin side of the award and then gradually became more involved working with the youngsters on all aspects on their award. Now she regularly assists with training and expeditions. She is now keen to gain more qualifications to become more involved with the expedition training.

‘I achieved my Gold DofE award when I was 18. I still have amazing memories of the experience and made great friends who I am still in touch with. My Aunty inspired me to get involved with the award as she was a DofE leader/assessor for many years and showed her enthusiasm for getting young people involved. I would now like to pass on my experience and enjoyment to the youngsters that come through The Hub’. 

Although Alison’s background is working as a teacher in Primary Schools she enjoys working with teenagers and can use many of her skills needed in education for helping the youngsters achieve their award.